THE COVID-19 testing clinic at Honeysuckle has reopened after "gutted" staff discovered on Monday morning that much of their equipment had been stolen from the site.
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The Histopath clinic was closed until around midday as police investigated the theft of electronic devices that enable testing staff to send information to be the laboratory in real time.
Greg Granger, the strategic operations director of Histopath, said they were back up and running fairly quickly on Monday, but they were disappointed it had happened in the first place.
"From time to time we get a bit of interference at sites," Mr Granger said. "It's the first time we've had a break in in Newcastle, because it's a relatively high profile site in public view and reasonably secure - we felt - in that space.
"But we think someone has taken the opportunity with that storm activity, when fewer people were around, to be a nuisance."
Mr Granger said they were still figuring out the full extent of the property loss, but police had been on site most of Monday to investigate.
"It is disappointing. We work under all conditions," he said. "It is a relatively thankless job when it's not in the media eye, but COVID is not going away and we are still turning up each day.
"When this type of stuff happens it is disappointing, but it doesn't deter us.
"We'll be kicking on right through this cold and flu season, especially as these new sub-variants start to take hold."
Mr Granger said their clinics were now offering routine testing for influenza A and B - as well as respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) - and COVID-19.
"We do that without the requirement of a referral as well, which means we're absorbing all the costs for those additional tests," Mr Granger said.
"But we noticed a lot of people were getting tested and calling us certain they had COVID because they were really sick, and we knew in the background that flu was really taking off, so we thought the best thing to do was add them to our suite of tests so patients could be properly informed of an illness and be directed through to their GP for further treatment if needed."
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Anita Beaumont
Anita Beaumont is a health and general news reporter at the Newcastle Herald.
Anita Beaumont is a health and general news reporter at the Newcastle Herald.
